“I could see, floating in the air, the lifeguards attempting to resuscitate a lifeless body; it was mine.” “I saw a bright light that asked me, in a life review, what I have done in my life for love and learning.” “I felt peace and no fear of death.” These are words of those who “died” temporarily and reported how they felt when they returned from the “other side.”

Due to advances in resuscitation and defibrillation practices over the past decades, people are returning from the brink of death in numbers unprecedented in human history. Of the millions of people who survive drowning each year, about 20% report a near-death experience (NDE): a reported memory of profound psychological events that contain certain paranormal, transcendental, and mystical features. NDEs are usually hyperreal and lucid experiences dominated by pleasurable feelings and more rarely dominated by distressed feelings. This book presents a summary of 40 years of research on NDEs. It contains 22 drowning NDE accounts and recommendations for how water safety professionals can use NDE-related information in their work with people they successfully resuscitate.

“A wonderful book about those that reached the borderline of death and returned to the land of living.”
—Patriarch/Pope Theodore II of Alexandria

“A book worth reading by all lifeguards of the world.”
—Bob Burnside, founder of the United States Lifesaving Association

JANICE MINER HOLDEN, Ed.D., is a professor of counseling at the University of North Texas, USA, who has researched near-death experiences for over 30 years. STATHIS AVRAMIDIS, Ph.D., is an award-winning authority on water safety at the Hellenic Center for Disease Control & Prevention, Greece.